Forbidden

by Christina Phillips

  She lay as if unconscious, and yet her eyes remained open. Every instinct, born of his heritage, his years in the army, his core of honor, demanded he exact retribution from her attacker.

  And yet Carys needed him.

  Grinding his teeth, he sank to his knees and tugged her gown over her thighs, covering her exposed flesh. In his peripheral vision he saw the barbarian retreating, heard the splash of water, and his fingers tightened around his gladius in readiness.

  But the coward made no move toward him, instead vanishing into the far side of the woods.

  May Mars strike him down. It crucified him to allow an enemy to escape, but Carys—for Jupiter’s sake—what in Tartarus was wrong with Carys?

  Still clenching his gladius in case the Celt made an unexpected return, he attempted to cover her breasts, but the material snagged around her arms, impeding his one-handed efforts. He leaned over her and frowned into her glazed eyes.

  “Carys?” His voice was barely above a whisper. She made no sign that she could hear him, and somehow that was even more unnerving than her vacant stare.

  With a finger that unaccountably shook, he gently wiped the blood from her lips. He could see no cut or bruising upon her face, but that meant nothing. He, Tiberius Valerius Maximus, had failed to protect her when she had needed him most.

  He ripped the fibula from his right shoulder, barely acknowledging how the clasp tore his flesh and spilt his blood, and pulled his cloak free. With one sharp glance across the stream to ensure the Celt wasn’t making a stealthy return, he placed his gladius on the grass.

  Sliding his arm beneath Carys’s neck, he lifted her from the ground and slipped his cloak around her, covering her chilled body. Still she didn’t acknowledge his presence, but merely lay there as if she were a beautiful, malleable corpse.

  And then a strange, pungent aroma drifted in the air, taunting his consciousness with an elusive familiarity.

  Pinpricks of alarm raced through his blood, although he couldn’t fathom why, only knew in the most elemental recesses of his soul that the cloying aroma clinging to Carys was somehow wrong.

  An iron fist wrapped around his lungs, crushed his ability to breathe. Sheathing his gladius, he gently lifted her, holding her close to his body. Smothering his natural instincts that urged him to ignore his suspicions, he lowered his head and drew her breath deep into his constructed chest.

  For one shattering moment he was catapulted back to his childhood, back to the sacred temples of the oracles with their swirling incense and magical flames.

  Comprehension flooded his brain. And then flames of another kind roared through his lungs, expanded his chest and scorched his sanity as the realization of what the barbarian truly was punched through his consciousness.

  On the other side of the stream, hidden within the shade of the trees, Aeron watched as the Roman scum lifted Carys as if she belonged to him, and strode back the way he had obviously come.

  Aeron gripped his hazel rod, imagined it was the invader’s neck. How dare the cretin throw him aside, as if he were of no account? And how dare he touch Carys, soiling her flesh, polluting her spiritual journey?

  Grinding his teeth, he arrowed malevolence across the stream, searing the Roman’s retreating back. Fucking coward, to attack him when he possessed no weapon, when he was unprepared, when he’d been about to take Carys and impregnate her with his son.

  Rage broiled through his gut, ignited his veins. And now the Roman would fuck her instead, fill her with his foul seed, corrupting the sanctity of her womb.

  Air hissed between his clenched teeth. She would never conceive a Roman brat. He would see her dead first, honor preserved.

  But first he would deal with the Roman abductor.

  When he was sure he was alone, he emerged into the clearing, hazel rod angled slightly above the ground. The answer was here, somewhere. He could feel the certainty humming through his bones, and, although he didn’t know what he sought, that was of no consequence.

  He would know when he found it.

  The hazel rod jerked and Aeron sank to his knees. Hidden among the grass a gold barbaric broach glinted. And smeared across the sharp clasp: Roman blood.

  Maximus rode back to the settlement, one arm wrapped around the still-unconscious Carys. A dozen fragmented thoughts churned through his brain, but this wasn’t something he could conquer through superior might, or fight with physical strength, or lambaste with logic.

  For this, he needed a priest.

  An auxiliary took his horse and Maximus shouldered his way through the locked door of his new quarters.

  He lowered Carys onto the bed, tugged her gown into some semblance of modesty across her breasts and then hovered by her side. He didn’t want any messenger to know of his business, yet how could he leave her alone to go to the temple, when she was so vulnerable?

  “Maximus?”

  Maximus straightened and turned toward the bedroom door where Aquila stood. The one man he trusted above all others. Sometimes the gods answered a prayer before it had even been uttered. “Aquila, fetch me the priest.”

  Aquila glanced at Carys. “The priest? What’s happened, Maximus? Who is this woman?”

  Mine.

  He strode toward Aquila and glanced through the door to ensure they were alone. “She was attacked. By a Druid.”

  “You captured a Druid?”

  He fucking should have. “He escaped.”

  “How do you know he was a Druid if you haven’t interrogated him?”

  He should have caught that bastard. “He drugged her with elixir of the gods. She looks awake, yet is unaware of our world.”

  “You saw this happen?”

  “I didn’t need to see it.” His voice was sharp. “She reeks of the essence of the oracles. As for the Druid, there’s no mistake.” He should have realized instantly what the creature was, as soon as he’d seen him stumble into the water. “His stance was unmistakable, even without the blue-daubed nakedness of the ones at the border.”

  “You say she was attacked. But perhaps she’s his woman. She could lead us to where the Druids are hiding.”

  “She’s not his woman.” The thought was repellant. “He was about to rape her as I arrived.”

  Aquila regarded him through narrowed eyes. “How did the Druid evade capture? If he was alone and vulnerable with his cock hanging out, I fail to see why—”

  Maximus grasped Aquila’s arm. “She’s mine.” He saw confusion and then comprehension flare in the other man’s eyes. “And I have every intention of capturing the barbarous Druid and exacting vengeance.”

  “You know you’ll be questioned as to why the Druid escaped.” Aquila’s voice was low, but filled with meaning.

  Of course he knew. “The priest is bound by vows. I’ll ensure his silence on the matter.”

  Carys’s head slumped to the side, facing him. His heart jerked against his ribs, but instantly he saw it meant nothing. She was as unaware as before.

  “I wouldn’t trust the priests we have here to keep your counsel.” Aquila sounded grim. “They’re looking for any leverage to ensure their speedy return to Rome.”

  “Then I saw no Druid.” Maximus shot his friend a feral glare. “Do you understand, Aquila? There was no Druid.”

  Only the tightening of Aquila’s jaw betrayed his personal feelings on the matter. “I understand.”

  Maximus faced the man who had been by his side since they were both boys in Rome. “Ensure you do understand. I’ll have no whispers circulating that Carys has anything to do with the barbaric Druids.”

  Because she didn’t.

  A rasping breath from the bed penetrated his rage-fueled mind, and he crouched beside her.

  “Carys, can you hear me?” His voice was gruff. “Do you know where you are?”

  Her eyes flickered and began to water. “Mon.”

  The hairs on his arms shivered to attention. “Mon?” Did she mean the isle of the Druids, Mona? “No, you’re not. You
’re here with me. In Cambria.” He struggled for the Celtic translation. “Cymru.”

  “The Great Goddess,” Carys’s voice rasped as if her throat were seared by fire. “The Morrigan rejects me.”

  Awkwardly, he smoothed back the hair from her brow. “It’s a bad dream, Carys. Your goddess will never forsake you.”

  “Cerridwen weeps.” Carys hitched in a ragged breath and her pupils begin to contract, distilling the chilling glaze.

  “Are the Druids with you?” Aquila hissed in Celtic, and Maximus gritted his teeth, incensed by the implications Aquila appeared to be making.

  “The Druids?” Pain etched her face and her lashes flickered, finally dispelling the last vestiges of that eerie stare.

  He felt the tension thudding from Aquila but kept his focus on Carys, as if by sheer willpower alone he could prevent her from saying something that would condemn her for all time.

  Her breath strangled in her throat and her eyes widened in sudden terror. “They all perished.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Carys had said they. Not we. But he had expected nothing else, couldn’t understand the depth of his relief. And so he rounded on Aquila.

  “She requires a woman. Fetch that girl, Branwen.”

  Aquila straightened, and for a moment offense carved his features, as if he resented being sent on such a mission.

  “I’ll arrange for her to be found.”

  “No.” Maximus also straightened. “I entrust this to no one but you, Aquila. I don’t want Carys to be the victim of any malicious gossip.”

  Aquila clenched his jaw and jerked his head.

  “I’ll find Branwen.”

  As soon as Maximus was sure they were alone, he turned back to Carys. She was staring at him, her eyes watering as if in delayed reaction.

  “How do you feel?” Stupid question. But he wasn’t used to tending sick women.

  It wasn’t his place to tend sick women. And yet he remained by her side, torn between relief at her apparent recovery and a sense of unease at the strange words she’d uttered as she had emerged from the elixir’s enchantment.

  “I don’t know. Where am I?”

  “In my quarters. You’re safe.”

  Confusion clouded her eyes. “But I left the settlement.” Her frown deepened. “I returned with Morwyn and Gawain and went to the Cauldron.”

  He filed the names away for later scrutiny. “I found you at the spring.” He made an educated guess. “The Cauldron.”

  “I don’t recall.” She sounded unnerved. “What—Why did you take me from the sacred spring and bring me to your quarters?”

  Should he tell her? Or leave her in blessed ignorance of the fate she’d so narrowly avoided?

  Fear tinged her expression, as if she suspected the truth.

  “I had no choice.” It was as simple, and as complicated, as that.

  Carys gripped her fingers together and tried to prevent the panic churning through her stomach from showing on her face. If he had overheard her saying something incriminating while in trance, then he wouldn’t be looking at her the way he was now.

  Would he?

  She swallowed, her mouth dry, her throat raw and parched from the smoke-filled vision. Maximus didn’t look as if he wanted to butcher her as an enemy of his precious Rome. He looked as if he was concerned about her.

  “Why did you follow me?” The words were barely above a whisper, as the full implication shivered through her soul. How had he followed them, without their knowledge?

  She wouldn’t believe Maximus was the cause of that malignant presence she and Morwyn had sensed. There had to be another answer.

  “I didn’t follow you.”

  Her thoughts tumbled, shattered. “You didn’t?”

  “No.”

  She let out a shaky breath. “And yet you found me.”

  “It would seem our paths are destined to cross, no matter how hard you try to run from me.”

  The tension seeped from her body and she sagged against the wall, suddenly realizing how desperately tired she was. “I’d never run from you.”

  The corner of his mouth lifted in a sardonic smile. “You might want to remember that, the next time you defy my orders to stay.”

  He would never know how much she wanted to stay with him. Or how such a fantasy could never be. “You still haven’t told me why you brought me here.”

  The smile vanished.

  “You were in danger.” His narrowed eyes betrayed the extent of his fury as they darkened with evil intent.

  Ice trickled along her spine. “You saw I was in danger?” Awe threaded her voice. Even now the lingering remnants of terror scraped through her spirit as she recalled the smoke-filled, blood-drenched vision.

  She had been trapped inside that vision. And something had dragged her from the pit.

  Maximus. Guiding her back to the mortal realm.

  Did he possess gifts from his own gods that allowed him access to the spiritual world? Had he witnessed the vision with her?

  “Don’t you remember anything that happened after you arrived at the Cauldron?”

  She stared at him, as she searched her mind. But all she could recall was preparing the magic roots.

  Her gaze dropped to her hands and she slowly spread her fingers. Dried blood caked the finger she’d used to stir the sacred concoction.

  Slowly she raised her hand, her eyes riveted on her finger. Now she could see teeth marks ripped into the skin, could recall the taste of her blood on her tongue, her lips.

  And the sheer, elemental terror of being aware of, yet being unable to flee, the fury of the Morrigan or the horrific carnage of her people.

  She choked on a breath, and Maximus sat beside her on the bed and pulled her roughly into his arms, as if unaware how his armor bruised.

  “Don’t be afraid.” His voice was hard. But his hand, gently caressing her head and sliding through her hair, was infinitely gentle. “I’ll find him. You have my word.”

  She dragged her fascinated gaze from her torn finger and looked up at him. Something in his blazing eyes, in the way his gaze held hers with a possessive ferocity, alerted her that whatever danger Maximus had saved her from had nothing to do with her vision.

  Dread coiled in the pit of her stomach. “Who will you find?”

  His intense gaze flickered, as if her question made no sense. “The one who drugged you.”

  Relief surged through her. Whatever he’d seen, he was still in blissful ignorance of her familiarity with such sacred, forbidden knowledge.

  His calloused hand cradled her face, a simple gesture and yet somehow so tenderly intimate. “The barbarian who attacked you while you were insensible upon the ground.”

  Her cocoon of security unraveled, twisting into knots of shocked disbelief. Her heart rate accelerated, her breath shortened, and a sensation of tightness wrapped around her chest, pressing into her lungs.

  Why hadn’t Cerridwen protected her?

  And immediately the answer vibrated through her brain.

  Because, despite whatever Carys had thought, her goddess hadn’t invited her into the realm of the immortals.

  “Carys.” Maximus’s tone was urgent and she struggled to focus on his face, and not on the horrifying prospect that she had irretrievably severed the special bond with Cerridwen by her own rash actions.

  “Who—who—?” The words wouldn’t articulate. Why hadn’t she known the malignant sensation of being followed, as she’d ridden back to the spiral, was because the Roman legionaries who’d attacked her that morning were tracking her?

  “Don’t distress yourself.” His voice vibrated with leashed anger, and yet still his hands were gentle as he continued to caress her.

  She tore free of his hold and forced herself to look down her body. The ties at her bodice gaped free and with a strangled gasp she pressed her hands across her exposed cleavage.

  Had all three raped her, while she watched Rome rape her entire culture?

&n
bsp; And had Maximus come upon them, as she was being so brutally defiled?

  Nausea churned at the foul scenario playing through her mind and she squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the world. Blocking out Maximus. How could she not remember any of it? How could she not feel the disgusting aftereffects of such violation?

  “He didn’t rape you, Carys. I pulled him from you in time.”

  There had been only one.

  It was small comfort, for still he’d come upon her without her knowledge, while she had been so certain Cerridwen would ensure her safety.

  But it had been Maximus who’d saved her. Maximus who had protected her honor. Relief, regret and revulsion churned, and a lingering aftertaste of the sacred root against her tongue caused her gut to contract. She struggled to the edge of the bed as sweat slicked her skin, feverishly pushing Maximus, but he refused to be pushed.

  She gave up. And vomited the contents of her stomach over the floor.

  When Aquila finally returned with Branwen, she slunk into the room as if she expected to be eaten. Maximus curbed his irritation and forced a smile.

  “I understand you know the lady Carys.”

  Branwen’s nervous glance flicked to the bed where Carys slept the sleep of the exhausted, not the enchanted.

  When the pause lengthened and it became apparent Branwen wasn’t going to reply, he stepped toward her.

  “The lady Carys,” he prompted.

  Branwen began to tremble. “No, my lord.”

  He refocused his attention, which had strayed to Carys. “What?”

  “I don’t know her, my lord.”

  He couldn’t believe this shaking excuse for a female had the audacity to lie to his face. “Indeed, I believe you do.”

  “The Tribunus Laticlavius wishes you to personally attend to the lady Carys, Branwen.”

  Branwen shot another fearful glance at Carys. “I’ll tend to the lady.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

  Maximus decided to make Carys’s position crystal clear. “The lady is my mistress. She is to be accorded the respect due to her elevated status.”